Network multiplayer development meta issue

[MostCromulent]

Adding this as a public meta list for anyone else who wants to contribute to network play development.

NOT YET COMMENCED:

Potential New Features

• Configurable player turn timer; priority passes if turn time limit exceeded (potentially redundant now we have AFK timer)
• Add support for a public server browser, rather than connecting by direct IP address only??
• Connection quality indicator?
• Integrate chat into desktop UI rather than being a floating window (relatively simple on match screen, would require redesign of lobby screen - if done, should be optional as some users prefer floating window) - (dockable windows already implemented in Improved card zone view - dockable windows, zone banners, user prefs, hand UI options #9969), can adopt same method)

Fixes / QoL improvements

• Purge hidden information from sending to clients (need to reuse some kind of placeholder CardView?)
  should further reduce traffic especially for FullStatePacket + in the early game when most cards are still in libraries
  also reduces cheating potential (though not that much of a priority)
• Fix Make GameLog transient — clients build from forwarded events #9802 regression - reconnected players will not see the gamelog but did prior to this change
• Expand AFK timer to cover other sendAndWait() AFK situations which are currently not null safe

IN DEVELOPMENT:

• Add support for online draft and sealed modes #10429
• Automatic reconnect for network clients

PR IN PROGRESS:

• Delta serialization rather than sending entire game state every update - merged but not yet enabled - Network multiplayer optimization (delta sync + testing) #9642
• Improved yield options to speed up 3+ player games - Expanded yield system / auto-pass options #9643
• Misc UI improvements - Add Host/Join landing page to online lobby #9899
• Add red/amber styling for server chat warning messages: e.g. UPNP failure / disconnect / AFK timeout warning - Highlight server warnings in multiplayer chat #10437

COMPLETE:

• Improved server messages in chat window - Network multiplayer optimization (chat) #9660
• Version mismatch warning in chat - Add version check warning for network play #9698
• Reconnect support - Network multiplayer optimization (reconnect) #9708
• Sort player fields in turn order in desktop UI - Auto sort multiplayer fields by turn order #9723
• Clients process events based on GameEvent forwarding rather than protocol methods - GameEvent refactor #9760
• Fix phase stop preferences in multiplayer - Fix phase stop preferences for multiplayer and network games #9820
• Avoid full View sends inside GameEvents - Add GameEventProxy to reduce network event serialization size #10018
• AFK timer / fix for sendAndWait() timeout NPE - Fix sendAndWait() timeout NPE for idle network players  #10354
• Misc UI improvements
  - Add Server URL dialog button, copy internal/external URL buttons #9821

[tool4ever]

imo the floating chat window is a bonus
I can move it to my second screen to check it quickly while waiting for connections - and then at least switch to other applications on top without having to keep Forge focused
(and right now I don't think there's a way to pull tabs completely out of the main window?)

[Jetz72]

Add support for draft and sealed modes.

I think we'd first need some proper structure for stand-alone draft/sealed events. As far as I'm aware, if you run a draft outside of Adventure or Quest, it only saves the decks of each player. From there you just challenge the AI-drafted decks to stand-alone matches at your leisure, with no form of score-tracking, brackets, or any other progression between matches.

Add support for a public server browser, rather than connecting by direct IP address only??

Still have some reservations about this. It opens several avenues for player misconduct with zero accountability. It's the kind of environment that expects some form of moderation, but that is an entire can of worms no matter how you approach it.

[MostCromulent]

Still have some reservations about this. It opens several avenues for player misconduct with zero accountability. It's the kind of environment that expects some form of moderation, but that is an entire can of worms no matter how you approach it.

Accept your point here - the current IP address sharing at least has the simplicity of mandating an "if you're a jerk I won't play with you" norm without needing external moderation.

[MostCromulent]

Add support for draft and sealed modes.

I think we'd first need some proper structure for stand-alone draft/sealed events. As far as I'm aware, if you run a draft outside of Adventure or Quest, it only saves the decks of each player. From there you just challenge the AI-drafted decks to stand-alone matches at your leisure, with no form of score-tracking, brackets, or any other progression between matches.

@Jetz72 here's a design doc on a potential implementation.

Basically, workflow/UI for minimum viable product (Phase 1 in document) is:

• Players join online lobby and host initiates a draft / distributes packs for sealed with attached event ID metadata.
• For draft, players use existing draft interface with minor network modifications (e.g. pick timer) to select picks. AI takes any non-human seats in pod for pick selection.
• Once draft complete / packs distributed, players build decks offline using received cards.
• Any players involved in the pod can then meet in online lobby whenever they want and can select their decks for match; server performs a handshake using the ID metadata to confirm each player's decks come from the same draft / distribution.
• Host can optionally disable this deck conformance rule and allow a free for all.

Phase 2 then discusses ways an event/tournament structure could be layered on top of this.

[Jetz72]

Phase 0.5 seems like a sensible addition, even independent of the tournament stuff.

What's the idea behind storing a single player's draft pool as a DeckGroup instead of a Deck? Is the idea to support multiple decks from the same card pool? (Admittedly I think DeckGroup is a bit of a weird use case for the Deck interface to begin with; it's basically 8 players' decks stored in one file, but it acts sorta like one deck internally.)

The host's lobby in phase 1 after decks are built should probably let them choose what event they're hosting from a list, then a connected client is given a list of decks built from that event's card pool (rather than both players picking any event deck and only validating afterward whether they match).

As an alternative to the proposed implementation order, it might be worth considering implementing phase 2 locally with AI before extending the entire process to support multiplayer. An actual structured draft tournament has been conspicuously absent from Forge's drafts (at least outside of Adventure).

On that note, it may be worth exploring if any of the Adventure Event logic can be shifted up and generalized in order to build phase 2. I'm sure it'd be nice to avoid duplicating logic for stuff like player pairing styles.

Hard Mode: Conspiracy draft actions. They're currently pretty heavily hard-coded, a bit fragile, and in some cases a total UX nightmare. Generalizing them would be a daunting task on its own, but I'm worried supporting them without doing so would be very messy.

[tool4ever]

while doing some cleanup I noticed these guards which effectively disable the related ProtocolMethod:

also the logic for confirm-handling looks rather messy with multiple branches for mobile:

seems to have been introduced for displaying the related card - but surely this can be refactored more cleanly after all these years? 🤔